Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing; Pros and cons
Online or digital marketing is the advertisements we see every day on tablets, phones, computers while just scrolling the internet, social media, playing games, and so on. While television is usually considered as a way of traditional marketing. Typically, digital marketing is when companies try to sell their products and services presenting them to us through electronic devices like cellphones, computers, and tablets.
Traditional marketing is when the advertisements appear in magazines, newspapers, posters, catalogs, billboards, TV, and radio broadcasting. Today we don’t use much of these, but if the advertisement is done at its best, it can easily catch your attention and stick in your memory.
Digital marketing has grown rapidly in the late 20 years mainly through electronic devices but the first act of it was done long before, in 1896, when Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi invented the first long-distance wireless signal, the radio. After a successful live broadcast from an opera performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in NY City, people bought the show tickets! So first digital marketing attempt was done! But today, Radio is considered to be a way of traditional Marketing.
Though online marketing is now a leader, traditional marketing still has its impact in some ways and it also has its pros. The good point of traditional marketing is the fact that that it is permanent and memorable. The printed version of any advert you can read too many times and whenever you want, and besides, looking at smth, in reality, is least likely to forget than when you see it scrolling the screen.
But the fact is that this type is more expensive because it can’t be targeted. If we compare how much money a company has spent on an advert through the traditional way and how many targeted people have come across it, we’ll see the cost is higher.
While speaking of the pros of digital marketing, engagement and target are in the first place. Through social media, you can easily see what type of content your audience likes and how much they like it, how many shares, saves, or interactions have been, and thus create a higher engagement. As for targeting, it’s one of the best and most important tools in digital marketing.
Through a cleverly targeted advert, a specific person you want can see your content. But the worst part of digital marketing is the thing that the constant ads online can be overwhelming and annoying. You want to just enjoy your spare time scrolling Facebook or Instagram but the advertisements keep showing up, because you have searched for a specific product the day before, or maybe last week.
Strategies for local businesses
There are many ways for promoting local businesses online but you should stick to the best ways. But before it, you should remember that the most effective and fast way is turning to a company that is great at local marketing automation and handle all the work to specialists. They’ll use the organized strategies that will promote your business rapidly which will save both your time and money.
Promoting local business digitally and also alone can be sometimes hard and disappointing, as there are too many competitors bigger and with much more awareness. But it doesn’t mean you should give up, here are some strategies that will help you.
SEO and SEA: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the strategy when, with the help of some keywords and content, your business page will show up on the first page of search engines. Well done SEO is the guarantee of your business because the world has gone online and before going to a specific store or an office, we firstly search about it on the internet.And if your SEO isn’t at its high level, your website doesn’t show up on the first page of a search engine, and accordingly, you’ll lose too many potential customers. Also you should make sure that your website is loading fast or else users may leave your website which will result in increase in bounce rate. SEA (Search Engine Advertising) includes the paid adverts that boost your page visibility on search engines. Unlike SEO the results of SEA appear within hours. Though it’s a bit expensive, it can be used in a one-time marketing campaign to have a kick-start, especially the newly opened businesses.- Social Media Marketing or SMM. This is the marketing strategy that grows more and more. Through media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others, you can have a bigger audience for your local business. Posting some informational and entertaining content, that is videos and photos, and not forgetting about advertising posts about your products/services will bring you much more potential customers than you can ever imagine.With the help of SMM, you can promote your local business easily through a well-targeted advertisement. Detailed targeting means when the advert sees the person/the company you need. For this you should try to determine who are your customers through these questions: What’s their gender, age, location, income, are they married or not, do they have children or not. These may seem simple characteristics but will help you a lot in spending less money on targeted adverts.
- Content Marketing is actually a part of SMM but it’s better to be viewed as a separate online marketing strategy. The fact is that content marketing includes all the types of content like infographics, blog posts, podcasts, articles, and social media posts. All these are written especially for specific audiences and customers. Without the right content marketing strategy, your local business can easily be lost in the flow.
- Affiliate or influencer Marketing is the strategy that can bring awareness to your local business but you have to be very attentive in selecting the influencer, its audience, and their location. Because who would like too many potential customers that are far from their location, if it’s not an internationally strong brand though.Affiliate marketing is easier and effective when two related businesses promote each other and bring more awareness. It will help your local business gain more audience and if you keep in touch with them, they’ll surely become your customers.
- Reviews from your prior customers are also a great impact on others’ choices. Ask for localized reviews and let them be shown on your website, social media, or blog. In this way, your small business will gain some trust from other people.
After reading all these points you may think that it can cost much for your local business but one should always remember that investing in the business is the essential ‘strategy’ you’ll never regret of. The size and the funds of your local business don’t matter at all, you just need to be innovative to keep up with trends!